Carson City recreation commission sets priorities

Capital projects at the Aquatic Center pool complex and Rifle Range improvements topped priority lists approved Tuesday by Carson City’s Parks and Recreation Commission.

The list is the commission’s set of priorities tweaked after Parks and Recreation staff drew up a preliminary list, which will go as a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors. Roger Moellendorf, Parks and Recreation Department director, said he’s hopeful city government was going to have a capital improvement budget it can feed into as city revenues look better, but he wasn’t yet certain.

Since 2008, most capital upgrades were funded via an internal finance committee process on an as-needed basis, but economic recovery might mark a return to a fully-vetted capital improvement process if revenue streams keep improving, Moellendorf said.

The commission’s decisions placed pool rehabilitation and other work ahead of enhancements at the JohnD Winters Centennial Park lower complex on the recreation major projects list, while Rifle Range upgrades topped the minor project group among the 32 projects.

Resurfacing the 50-meter pool was the largest amount involved in the pool projects at $130,000.

Five other pool complex related projects would total $167,000 more. The JohnD Winters Centennial Park lower complex project is for more than $80,500.

The Rifle Range project cost is $15,000. The second minor project priority is expansion of Lone Mountain cemetery for $13,800.

The commission also chose new leadership and reviewed a federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) draft of the Carson City District Management Plan.

Brett Long was chosen as commission chairman and Lee-Ann Keever is the new vice chairman. Long had been vice chairman and moves into the slot vacated by Sean Lehmann, who has served two years as chairman. The Board of Supervisors has limited such chairmanships to two years.

The management plan review prompted discussion about limitation of motorized and mechanized vehicles off road and whether roads will be closed on BLM lands, as well as how wild horses are being handled.

The commission was told BLM is trying to move wild horses farther from Carson City urban areas.

The management plan is in a public comment period ending March 27 and a local meeting on it is set at the Plaza Hotel, 801 S. Carson St., from 2-6 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 24.

On another matter, Leon Thomas, field manager of the Sierra Front Field Office in Carson City, said the BLM is closing in on conveying acreage near Flint Drive and U.S. Highway 50 to city government. That’s where a disc golf course complex will go on 100 acres after the city assumes control.

“We are very close,” said Thomas. “I don’t want to give you a firm, hard date, but it is at the top of our priority list.”